In mid-March, more than ten counties in Henan County surrendered in response to the proclamation of elder brother.

The chiefs of the remaining counties refused to surrender and deliberately resisted the city's stubborn resistance. Unfortunately, they ultimately failed to offer Cao Cao this last loyalty - the rest of the officials and wealthy families in the county were unwilling to become the martyrdom of "dead with the city". They plotted to join forces to attack, seize control of the city, and used the chief's head as a gift to surrender to the army for surrender.

With the successive surrender of the counties in Henan County, Guanzhong and Guanxi have basically been under the control of our army. Among the remaining obstacles, the largest one is Hangu Pass, which was guarded by Gao Lan.

"The sky opens Hangu to Guanzhong, and the dust is shook the north sky."

Hangu Pass Hangu Pass guards the throat of Wuhan, connecting to Hengling in the west, Juejian in the east, Qinling in the south, and Yellow River in the north. The terrain is dangerous and the road is narrow, and it is known as "the carts do not have square tracks, and the horses do not reincarnate together." Because this pass is the throat of Luoyang in the east and Chang'an in the west, it has always been a place that military strategists must fight for.

It is precisely because of the easy defense and difficult attack of Hangu Pass that Gao Lan can with his weak force to block the fierce attack of the three coalition forces of Ma Dai, Zhang Ren and Lu Meng.

Speaking of Gao Lan, he is also a rather not simple character. In terms of force, he can be called "Hebei Four Courts Pillars" together with Yan Liang, Wen Chou and Gao Lan. But unlike Yan Liang, Wen Chou, who is a brave man, Gao Lan is more similar to Zhang He, and has a good set of skills in military command. However, because the other three of the four courts are too dazzling, Gao Lan seems not so outstanding. But this does not mean that he can be underestimated.

A very simple example - Gao Lan was originally ordered to guard Tongguan. On that day, the governor of Yongzhou, Zhang Ji, escaped from Chang'an. When he led two thousand remaining troops to retreat to Tongguan, Gao Lan could actually block Ma Dai from Tongguan. Moreover, it was rumored that since Zhang had asked to defend Tongguan to the death, Gao Lan chose to abandon Tongguan without hesitation and rely on Hangu Pass to launch defense.

Others may think that Gao Lan is timid and afraid to fight, but in my opinion, his choice is undoubtedly very rational - my Lord Taishan was captured, tens of thousands of elite Cao's army were destroyed, and the fall of Chang'an... In the face of this kind, he can only describe the local news by "bad news". The morale of the Cao army will inevitably be in chaos.

In this case, once the cavalry is shocked by Ma Dai's Iron Cavalry (although the cavalry cannot forcibly attack the pass, it is suitable to shake the morale of the army), the Cao army is likely to collapse without fighting, and it is almost a dream to defend Tongguan!

Seeing this, Gao Lan decisively retreated eastward to Hangu Pass, leaving only a few troops at Tongguan as a restraining effect. Taking advantage of the few days he had won, Gao Lan slightly stabilized the morale of the army.

As it turned out, he did it right——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

But I am no longer planning to delay Gao Lan anymore——The battle situation on the Western Front must end as soon as possible, so that I can drive my army back to the Central Plains and work with my second brother to deal with the war on the Eastern Front.

On March 16, I led Pang De's Iron Cavalry and 20,000 elite infantrymen to Hangu Pass. The eldest brother stayed in Luoyang. He was responsible for taking charge of the overall situation so as to stabilize the situation in Henan County as soon as possible.

At the same time, the eldest brother also had to prepare other things with the assistance of Pang Tong and Sima Yi, such as secretly contacting the gentry and family members of Hedong and Henoi, in order to prepare for the Northern Expedition Army to march into Hebei in the near future.

In addition, the eldest brother also wants to try to contact Tian Yu, the governor of Cao Fang Bingzhou who was stationed in Hedong, to see if he could lobby him to turn against each other. The eldest brother and Tian Yu were old acquaintances, and even had the kindness of knowing him. If it weren't for the fate of making people, Tian Yu might also serve under the eldest brother. But despite such a relationship, it would be not easy for the eldest brother to persuade Tian Yu to surrender.

But I don’t need to worry about all this. All I have to do is to get the Hangu Pass as soon as possible.

More than two days later, I led the troops to arrive at Hangu Pass and completed Gao Lan's encirclement in the true sense.

Ma Dai, Zhang Ren, Lu Meng and I were only separated by a Hangu Pass, less than ten miles apart, and we could even faintly hear the sound of each other's drums and horns.

After the camp was completed, I immediately sent an envoy to knock on the gate and made an appointment with Gao Lan.

The messenger brought a letter of advice to surrender that I wrote by myself. In the letter, I did not tell Gao Lan about the principles of justice of the country and the suffering of the people. Gao Lan is not a scholar. He is just a general who is so pure that he cannot be more pure. The righteousness of the country is not what he cares about. Using this to persuade him to surrender can only be disappointed.

As a general in command, especially a general like Gao Lan who has passed the age of hard work, the things he cares about will be more practical. Starting from this aspect, it may be able to achieve good results.

As it turned out, my prediction was not wrong——The envoy returned to the camp safely and even brought back Gao Lan’s message, and he was willing to discuss the surrender with me tomorrow.

After asking the messenger in detail about the process of entering the pass until he met Gao Lan, I thought for a while and wrote another text message, and sent the messenger to enter the pass and present it to Gao Lan in person.

Pang De, Chen Dao, Ling Tong and other generals showed strong curiosity and doubts about my actions.

When the sun sets in the west, the messenger returned to the camp again. According to his description, Gao Lan saw the content of my second letter for a moment and seemed very shocked. After that, although he quickly returned to normal, he still seemed a little dazed.

After hearing this, I know that my previous guess is not wrong.

"General, do you think... Gao Lan is preparing to surrender?" Pang De saw some clues and asked half-doubtedly and half-verified.

"It should be so." I nodded and said with a smile, "Gao Lan is also the most important general in Cao's camp. Even if he is surrounded and has no chance to escape, he will not surrender so easily. The more he agreed, the more strange it is...

In my guess, Gao Lan should be preparing to use the matter of agreeing to surrender as a way to make our army relaxed. He will attack tonight and attack me to exhaust myself.”

"The second letter from the general is..." Ling Tong said suddenly.

"Just just a little warning..."

Perhaps because he had heard my warning, or because he realized that our army had not relaxed his guard, Gao Lan did not go out of the night to attack.

The next morning, Gao Lan led dozens of elite cavalry out of the pass, and discussed with me a hundred steps apart before the pass. After the initial embarrassment, Gao Lan gradually relaxed his mind. When he learned from me that Zhang He and Yu Jin and the other two were not dead, they even secretly took on the heavy responsibility of training the new army for our army, Gao Lan also showed an inspiration in surprise. Gao Lan and Zhang He were close friends. They had always thought that their friends had died before, but at this moment they were very surprised.

With my promise not to make things difficult for his soldiers, Gao Lan finally chose to surrender and opened the door to close the door the next day to welcome the army from east to west. I also successfully met with Ma Dai, Lu Meng and Zhang Ren.
Chapter completed!